What a year it has been for this beautiful women and her family. As announced a few months ago, Marie was dying from diabetes. This treatable disease almost killed her. I can not forget her face when she told me that she felt like she was dying. She was so scared that her children would live without parents. She wasn't ready to leave this earth as she felt she needed to be here to raise her children as their father already passed away from a different treatable disease just few years ago. When we offered her an opportunity to loan her some money to help her start a business her eyes opened wide while she answered yes, I'll take it. Marie prepared a plan, sign a contract and the money was hers. She was very happy to have this opportunity. We are thrilled to give it to her. We will keep you posted as to how she is progressing.

Thanks to all of our donors. Thanks to the blessing of give to the Max Day.

On Christmas, the pastor at PAP Fellowship preached on the birth of Christ like I am assuming most churches did. What really resignated with me was the pastor spoke of too many times Christians believe in God, know all the stories but still want to be completely in charge of their own lives. He preached it isn't enough to believe in God, but to instead truly have a relationship with Him. He also spoke about listening to God and follow what he tells us. Sometimes he tells us things we don't want to hear or calls us to places that put us outside of where we feel comfortable. We are to do it. He preached when we are truly obedient and let go out our own desires and needs is when we will transform. I can say personally I'm not always good at letting God guide my life. I am a work in progress.As I ride on a bus taking our team of 9 to Cap Haitien never being there before, (this is new destination for our Haitian friends as well), we are trusting the Lord to protect us and guide us. We as a team decided God placed our hearts here for a reason, so we went. (Let me add that I spoke to many Americans that have been here to find out more about the places we will go.) I am trying to hand the steering wheel over to God. It isn't always easy. Another thing the pastor spoke of was to be bold in our actions, in our character to let our lives be a true reflection of Christ the best we can be as sinners.Please Continue to pray for our team. My children are experiencing so many new things. Some they love, somethings, not so much. Please continue to pray of us as we really am needing our prayer warriors out there to help us with prayer.Thanks to everyone who is praying.

As I reflect on these past 10 days in Haiti, I think of all the contrast we experienced on this trip. We started the trip by staying at a nice resort. It had a nice pool and lots of fun things to do there. The kids, as well as our Haitian friends, seemed to really enjoy it there. I think the key ski was the favorite of our friend Mickelson. He was a mad man on that thing. I enjoyed watching the kids have fun and watching our Haitian friends learn to swim. After that time was finished, we traveled to a city called Cap Haitien. It is located in the northern part of Haiti. The city reminded me a lot of Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti. It was busy, chaotic just as we expected it would be. There, we stayed at a hotel for one night literally waiting for our ship to come in. The ship was late. That was expected. Since we had time to waste, we changed hotels (to a more American type hotel) so the kids could have some fun while we waited for the ship to arrive. Everyone seemed to love the pool. We passed the time enjoying food, conversation and watching the kids swim. I must say, it was a good break away from the stress of the ship not arriving on time. Once the ship arrived, we were able to retrieve all of our items off the pick up truck the items were shipped in. That was an adventure in itself. Lol! We were cheering that we were FINALLY on our way to Ranqutte. Our bubble would soon be popped as we endured a flat tire. The kids were interested in watching the 'primitive process' of how tires are repaired in Haiti. I personally sat, practiced patience and drank pop. What a treat!Once the tire was repaired, we were on our way again! Whoo Hoo! The trip to Ranqutte was long. (3 hours long to be exact.) Everyone sat in the back of the pickup. The roads were very rough. They kind of reminded me of really rough ATV trails, just wider. We were uncomfortable, but no one really complained. We all kept repeating "this is so crazy". Lol! The kids did fantastic. It even started to sprinkle on us and of course Kyle, being Kyle looks up in the sky and says, "God, we aren't your cupcakes!" Lol! Get it sprinkles on cupcakes. We all just shook our heads and laughed as Kyle amused us quite often on this trip. What a kid! Oh to be 9 years old again!Once we arrived, we were shown our room. Our friend, Chrisma, offered us his home to stay in for the night. My family was able to experience sleeping in a Haitian home for one night. The host family was very generous. They offered us showers and gave us food. We all felt blessed to have food in our bellies and a place to lay our heads. We were all exhausted from the adventurous day of travel.The next morning we headed out to Chrisma's land where he often gathers the local children and teaches them about God. He sings with the kids, feeds them with his own hard earned dollars from what he earns from his teaching job. You can truly see that Chrisma truly loves the children very much. It was there we were able to share the awesome gifts that were made with some much love with his kids. I brought my dad's Santa costume and Bethel played Santa. The kids knew who he was and had fun with it. We weren't able to stay for the whole party as we came a day late, but it was great to meet all the kids and spend some time with them.

Before my family came to Haiti there was a lot of planning that went into this trip. Quite a few things had to align before we left. The Christmas boxes, shoes and clothes all had to be shipped. We were going to ship the items via cargo, but had to stuff a small pickup truck full of the collected items and send the truck on a ship in Miami to Cap Haiten, Haiti. That all happened on schedule. We arranged for all the transportation that we needed and for places to sleep at night. That was all set. That was a miracle in itself.Now, we are waiting for the second part of the story to align. So far, the ship has been delayed. This is expected in Haiti. I keep telling myself this. I try to remind myself that it will all come together, just not on my schedule. I hate practicing patience. All I have left with is to be patient and wait. Did I mention I dislike waiting? As we are here waiting literally for our ship to come in, (I know, that was bad, but come on..It is kind of funny.) Since we have to wait one more night for our ship we have decided to change hotels. One that has a pool and things for my children to do while we all practice patience.

My youngest son, Kyle, pulled our team together and said a wonderful prayer today. He prayed that the next day the ship would arrive early in the morning so we didn't have to leave the items behind. He prayed how much the children needed a nice Christmas. We are all trying to be patient and praying the items arrive. If they don't arrive tomorrow, we will continue with our plan to go to Ranqutte. Regardless we will feed the children, talk about the birth of Christ and play with them. The items WILL arrive. Just not on our schedule. The children will receive their Christmas boxes, eventually. God truly blessed each child who will receive these items. I'm feeling down as I wanted to capture the joy on the faces of these children to be able to show everyone who contributed the children receiving their boxes. OH WAIT! The ship just arrived!!!

As I sit down and write about our up and coming trip, I reflect back to all the planning. My family has been planning for this trip for over a year! We talked about it, we prayed about it and then decided to act upon it. Although some in my family are fearful of stepping outside of their comfort zone, they are embracing what God has in store for us. We knew that God would provide a way for us to afford this trip as a family. He surly has done just that. We reached out to the community of St Michael-Albertville, MN to ask them to help provide the goods that we would need to make this trip impactful, God helped make that happen. We partnered with Logo Stop, a small business in Albertville to collect shoes for the kids in Ranquette, Haiti. God did indeed provide for this mission. We asked friends and family to help provide our version of the Operation Christmas Child Boxes (ours are called Blessing Boxes). We were hoping and praying to receive 100 Blessing Boxes, we have been blessed to bring over 200 boxes on this trip. God again provided. We were able to pack 2 large boxes of girls clothes, 2 large boxes of boy clothes, 3 large boxes of shoes as well 5 boxes of Blessing Boxes for the children of Ranquette and Fermathe. We have been able to raise money to send each child home with a bag of rice and a bag of beans to share with their families. Last summer, I think this was the favorite part of day for most of the children. To be able to share food with the people they love.

As I see the images of the children who are walking around with very large holes in their shoes, sleeping on the dirt ground, and are often hungry, I reflect and ask God, "why?" I still don't know the reason why some people suffer so much as some people live a life of luxury. All I know is we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. We are to do something. Anything! Mother Teresa once said,

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Imagine if each person gave just a little of their time, resources or of themselves. I imagine a world that is more giving, more sharing and more loving. So I can say, along with my family, that is an honor to help the meek and the poor people of Haiti. We know we can not solve the problems there. We know that these things won't change their situation a ton, but we do know that the people we are serving will leave happier and know that so many people gave to them out of the kindness of their hearts. So I leave this by saying I have personally seen so many give from the heart to a trip they aren't going on, but believe in. That is amazing in itself.

God bless everyone who gave for this trip. God bless all of you reading this blog right now. Christ IS working in and around this world. When I stop to take a deep look around, I see His good works all around me.

Let's just say plans have changed! I fully expect this when traveling to Haiti. When one door closes another one opens! No worries! Anchored Beginnings was planning on flying a 500 lb. palate of items to Haiti for our Christmas parties with over 110 children! Well...that didn't work out. :(The After several hours on the phone, we were able to find a possibility to get our items to Haiti! A huge Thanks to Ellen Schreder and her awesome husband for helping make this shipment possible. The items are all in this little pick up truck on their way to Haiti. God makes things happen when it seems so impossible. I have personally witnessed this time and time again. This is just another way he teaches us to have faith, be trusting in him and to simply know He is God! He sure opened a huge door for us! If you believe it can, it will happen. May just the way we want it to.

Thanks to ALL who contributed to the shoe and clothing Drive. We were able because of all the generous donations able to send down over 600 articles of clothing and more than 300 pairs of shoes. We surpassed our goal of 100 Blessing Boxes this year... We had 190 donated!! God sure blessed this mission. We will be sure to take photos of the children receiving their boxes and article of clothing as well as a new pair of shoes. This was all possible especially because a generous company in Loretto, MN offered to ship these items for us. Amazing!

All the Glory to God! We are thrilled to be the vessel that God is using to deliver these items to the areas of Fermathe and Ranquette, Haiti.

A family in Ranqutte Haiti had a roof that was leaking severely. Thanks to a small church group they now have a brand new tin roof. You see God calls us to help His children. Regardless if it is here in the USA or somewhere else. The smallest things can impact someone's lives in ways we can ever imagine. Thanks to everyone who made this blessing happen just before Christmas.

Give to the Max Day was a huge success. We could not have done it without all those who so generously donated. We not only made our goal, but exceeded it. We cannot thank you enough. Anchored Beginnings has been so blessed. We believe that we'll now be able to empower more people to start their own businesses to improve on their lives.